The World of Museums for Dr. Eric Zerrudo

Ni Oggie Medina

Dr. Eric B. Zerrudo, chairman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, has been trained as a development economist but he found himself working in a museum.

“I always enjoyed the culture, arts, history and heritage,” he begins with alacrity.

His first museum work was in the Metropolitan Museum of Manila which introduced the bilingual didactic and holistic approach to art. “I was very lucky to work with Felice Sta. Maria and Corazon Alvina, giants in cultural research and museum work.”

Then he moved to Japan to study Culture and Representation, and afterwards he joined the emerging GSIS Museum. He developed programs for the GSIS Museum collection with the purchase of the controversial “Parisian Life” painting by Juan Luna in 2002.

He eventually found himself joining the academe where he expanded the program of the UST Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and the Environment in the Tropics (UST CCCPET).

Simultaneously, he established the Marcos Museums in Ilocos Note, the Provincial Museums of Subangan in Davao Oriental and Banaan in Pangasinan and numerous local museums.

But for Dr. Zerrudo, teaching is an unending mastery of an open mind and a humble heart. “I continue to teach in the Graduate Program of Cultural Heritage Studies, established in UST in 2000. By 2003, the CCCPET was established to provide research and community service for students and faculty. And we have pioneered the cultural mapping in the country which has been made into law under RA 11961,” he says with a glint in his eyes.

He continues: “Our framework for heritage has always been the critical heritage — heritage as a development strategy to improve everyday lives. We have worked with national, provincial, and local organizations by utilizing heritage in education, tourism, cultural industries, gastronomy, transportation and, even peace and security. After 20 years, we hope to embark on a new era with a PhD program in cultural heritage studies.”

Teaching, he says, is always ground for both scientific and practical research. “Over the years, our research has opened areas of discoveries on certain topics and themes in research such as material conservation, built heritage , practices and rituals, museum development, and tourism interpretation. All these generated information about heritage, history, arts and culture. These topics are transversal knowledge that make the culture holistic and integrated.”